My first off... Help required tp get the SV running again..
 

Hey All,

Well after 5 years it happened. I hit the deck on the way to the bike shop this morning to check the cost f brake pads...

All seems ok except the faring and the clip on (throttle side) bike shop said it should be fine, just slightly bent and to see if I find it uncomfortable. I'll be reparing the fairing in the spring.

But... On coming home I found what I thought was a leak in the rad where the horn *may* have hit it. There was something there when I got the bike, but as I got home it seemed wet just in this particular place.

Started it again and left it running but it didn't get wet again, however when checking water levels seems low so that could be the reason why.

So my Q. How do I refil? Straight into the rad, or is there another filler somewhere? And what ratio water to antifreeze? 50/50? And will car antifreeze work (I have some of this) or do I have to buy bike anti freeze.

Regards

Stu

Fill up through the rad filler cap. Run the bike while filling up to prevent air locks in the system. Not 100% sure on the mix. It will give an indication on the bottle.

Unfortunately it came at the perfect price from a friend working in a garage - so the only info on the bottle is where Evian is sourced from IIRC :)

One other thing, throttle side, there is a bottle visible with what looks like a max and min line. This is how I check coolant right?

Stu

To fill the rad you need to take the fairing off!

You will then find a short pipe attached to the top of the rad on the throttle side. On top of this you will find a mini version of the rad filler cap on a car.

Fill up with either
1) premixed motorcycle antifreeze soultion
or
2) Special antifreeze for Aluminium cooling systems, made up (usually 50:50) with distilled water.

Ordinary ehtylene glycol based antifreeze and tap water will react with the Al and eventually damage the system

TIP If you mix your own distilled water is not the same as demineralised or deionised water.

Scratching my head trying to remember here, but does the Sv not have an expansion tank? This could be what Mav has spotted? I know there is on my Duke and this is where I had to refill the system from empty? I do believe it to be quite unusual for their not to be an expansion tank on a sealed cooling system these days?(If ever?)

I think the way to go is top up expansion tank to the MAX mark and replace cap.Run engine for several minutes to allow full warm up.leave to cool down fully and check where the level in the tank settles.Top up again if required.


Sid, Sid where are you? :?

mav has indeed spotted the expansion bottle on the left side of the bike. to refill the cooliant you need to lift the tank & fill the expansion bottle it has a rubber stopper on it.fill it to just above the min line u need no more, it wont take a lot of fulid so go carfully if overfill it you will need to drain some off. u need not have the bike running while you do this but you need to have it running for at least 3mins with the rad cap off after you have filled it. for the next 3-4 days every time u have used the bike & it has cooled down open the rad cap found under the fairing on the right hand side just to let the air out so u don't get any air in the system. u don't need to remove the fairing just to undo the cap u should be able to just squeeze your hand under there.

OH by the way the mix is 50/50, tho most come ready mixed these days anyway.


HTH

Cheers people.

This is the info I was hoping for :) After speaking to my dad (mechanic and ex biker) I'm hoping the rad is OK. He was saying that if there was a hole it would be more than a bit of steam rising. But as it look slike the coolant is low I won't know for sure until it's topped up again. I'll do it when the rain stops falling.

Stu

Sorry to hear about your off :(

I take it you're OK?